Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.124 September 27, 1995 1) "Rumania, Rumania" (Milt Eisner) 2) Hearing Yiddish (Sholem Yafe) 3) Yiddish science (Bob Rothstein) 4) Yiddish on Mendele (Gershon Margolis) 5) A phonetic shayle (Charles Jones) 6) A phonetic shayle (Eliyahu Juni) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 20:26:42 -0400 (EDT) From: eisner@delphi.com Subject: "Rumania, Rumania" Charles Kent [5.118] requested the lyrics to "Rumania, Rumania." Here they are, from _Great Songs of the Yiddish Theater_: "Rumania, Rumania" Words and Music by Aaron Lebedeff Ekh, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye. Geven a mol a land a zise, a sheyne. Ekh, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye, Rumenye. Geven a mol a land a zise, a fayne. Dort tsu voynen iz a fargenigen. Vos dos harts glust dir, dos kenstu krign. A mameligele, a pastramele, A karnatsele, un a glazele vayn, aha! In Rumenye iz dokh gut, fun keyn dayges veyst men nit; Vayn trinkt men iberal, me farbayst mit kashtaval. Hay digi digi dam, digi digi digi dam; Hay digi digi digi digi digi dam. Hay digi digi dam, digi digi digi dam; Hay digi digi digi digi digi dam. In Rumenye iz dokh gut, fun keyn zorgn veyst men nit; Vayn trinkt men iberal, me farbayst a kastravet. Hay digi digi dam, digi digi digi dam; Hay digi digi digi digi digi dam. Hay digi digi dam, digi digi digi dam; Hay digi digi digi digi digi dam. Oy vey g'vald, ikh ver meshige, kh'lib nor brinze, mamelige, Kh'tants un frey zikh biz der stelye, ven ikh es a patlozhele. Dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidlt ti dam. Ay, s'iz a mekhaye, beser ken nit zayn, Ay, a fargenign iz nor Rumenish vayn. Di Rumener trinken vayn un esn mamelige Ver es kusht zayn eygn vayb, o yener iz meshige. Dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidl ti dam; dzingma, tay tidlt ti dam. Ay, s'iz a mekhaye, beser ken nit zayn, Ay, a fargenign iz nor Rumenish vayn. A ... Yokum purkon min shemaye, shteyt un kusht di kekhne, Khaye, Ongeton in alte shkrabes, makht a kugl l'koved Shabes. Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam! A ... Yokum purkon min shemaye, shteyt un kusht di kekhne, Khaye, Ongeton in alte shkrabes, makht a kugl l'koved Shabes. Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam; Zets! tay tidl di dam! Ay, s'iz a mekhaye beser ken nit zayn, Ay, a fargenign iz nor Rumenish vayn. Ay, ay, ay! A gut yor. Milt Eisner McLean VA [A similar post has been received from Ariane Zwiers. nm] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1995 03:17:23 -0400 From: lakejaffe@aol.com Subject: "Hearing" Yiddish, thanks to Latin alphabet Just a word of appreciation to Eliyahu Juni for his explanation of N'sokhim -- but, beyond that, for his delightful pronunciation of the Yiddish words, the sound of which comes through beautifully, as though by a recording! I enjoy hearing the various dialects of English, and I take even greater delight in listening to the varieties of Yiddish pronunciation. And isn't it interesting that all this comes about as a result of the limitations imposed on us by our computers' inability to use the Yiddish/Hebrew alphabet! Sholem Yafe 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 16:00:06 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Yiddish science Re Shloyme-Khaim Cohen's project on Yiddish chemical terminology (5.120): Various Yiddish terminological dictionaries were published in the Soviet Union in the 1920's. Among them was a 177-page _Khemishe terminologye_, published by the Belorussian Academy of Sciences in 1927. This was part 1, covering general chemistry. It is listed as item #893 in the bibliography _Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1960_, compiled by Y. Y. Cohen with the assistance of M. Piekarz, and published under the editorship of Khone Shmeruk in Jerusalem in 1961. I don't know whether this work is available in any form outside of the former Soviet Union; perhaps our _bal-bibliografye_, Zachary Baker can help. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 01:15:59 -0800 From: garrym@netcom.com Subject: Yiddish on Mendele Uri Postavsky (5.119) generously offers Windows software which will allow Hebrew characters to be sent and received via E-mail and says that it could be modified for Yiddish characters and used to transmit messages in the Mendele list. Those of us with other platforms on which we read E-mail, including Macintosh as well as other non-Intel-compatible platforms, will not be able to read or respond to any messages in this format. Consequently, I am opposed to the use of this non-standard format. Gershon Margolis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:31:58 -0400 (EDT) From: cwjones@husc.harvard.edu Subject: A phonetic shayle I'm a little confused. According to what has been said so far on the subject, pronouncing "oyf" as [oyf] sounds either bookish or pretentious. Does this mean that you never use that pronunciation or just that it's reserved for "elevated" occasions? This problem came up in a practical way some time ago, when I came across the Yiddish words to the International. It begins: Shteyt oyf, ir ale, ver vi shklafn In hunger lebn muz un noyt! The "oyf" here is a very important word, both because of the meaning and because of the melody. Also, since it's a very serious song, it seems to call for the "elevated" pronunciation. But would that sound silly? After all, it's certainly not a snobbish song. Is there a native speaker out there with a real feeling for this sort of thing? Or maybe somebody with a recording of it? In other words, where exactly does the line lie between these two "levels" of speech? Charles Jones Cambridge, Mass. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 04:26:26 -0400 From: ao107@freenet.carleton.ca Subject: oyf/of/ouf Kh'hog'laynt (in numer 5.210) tsvay interesante brif veygn der 'pronunciation' fin "oyf" in farshidene dialektn. Reb Khayim Bokhner hot g'shribn az zane poylishe eltern zugn "of" ("of der vant"), ober ven s'iz geklibn ts'an andere vort, l'moshl "oyfshtayn", zugn zay "ouf", afile ven m'taylt's in tsvay--"ouf shtayn" in "shtay ouf"; Reb Laybl Goldberg iz nisht geveyn zikher tsi poylishe zugn "ofshtayn" oder "oufshtayn". Man minkatsher babe zukt owkhet "of" in "ouf"; khmayn az ale ingerishe redn owkh azoy. Ober vus shneler redt men, zukt men a kurtsere "ou", biz, ven m'ret gur shnel, farlirt men dus "u" in gantsn, in blabt nor "of". Man mame in ier eltern, vus shtamn fin poylin (Kozhnits), zugen "of" afile ven z'redn shtatlikh. Ikh vays nisht tsi "ouf" gehert ts'm poylishe dialekt, in ikh hob's nisht g'hert fin mayn zayde-bube vayl zay zen'n gevoynt ts'redn shnel, in hobn farlirt der "u" in gantsn (in der shprakh fin Linguistics, s'iz farloyrn fin zayere 'idiolects'); tsi s'iz andish in farshidene pletser in poylin; tsi s'gehert tsum ingerishe dialekt, in nisht tsum poylisher, in Reb Khayim hot g'makht a tu'es (er hot gurnisht g'shribn veygn ingerishe yiidish; efsher hot er g'misht poylishe mit ingerishe?). Heyoys az der kimendike numer fin mendele vet Reb Noyekh mistume nisht owsshikn biz nukh rosheshune, vel ikh vintshn ale mendelyaner a gmar khsime toyve (in a laykhte tunis ;-). Eliyahu Juni ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.124